Instagram is gearing up for a big 2023 with a slew of features ready for the new year.

Chief among them is a clone of the app BeReal, which surged in popularity this year.

Instagram’s version is called ‘Candid Stories’ which, just like BeReal, lets you post a snapshot from both the front and back cameras on your phone simultaneously.

Users will get a daily prompt and can also snap ‘candids’ from the Stories camera, or from another multi-author story.

We don’t yet know exactly when this feature will land in the UK. Meta is testing it out in South Africa first but it should be here in time for you to send updates on your New Year’s resolution progress.

Another feature Instagram is launching is called ‘Notes’ and works a bit like Twitter. Users will be able to send short messages (there’s a 60-character limit) and emojis to certain people.

‘To leave a note, go to the top of your inbox, select the followers you follow back or people on your Close Friends list, and your note will appear at the top of their inbox for 24 hours,’ Meta explained. ‘Replies to notes will arrive as DMs in your inbox.’

Finally, there are two new ways to collaborate together with friends on Instagram. A new feature called Group Profile that lets you effectively create a shared profile with a group of friends that you can all then share content to.

And then new ‘collaborative collections’ are ways to share interests even more with other people.

Meta explained: ‘We’re testing a way for people to connect with friends over their  shared interests by saving posts to a collaborative collection in your group or 1:1 DMs.

‘You can start or add to a collaborative collection by saving a post directly from feed or sharing a post to a friend via DM and saving it from there.’

So, if you’ve been tempted away from Instagram in recent months by the likes of TikTok or BeReal, then these new additiona may have you coming back to Insta for the new year.

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